Thanks for the input RW and Kego. My wife has been worried that in the next couple of weeks we need to hire someone here in Miami to give us lessons on handling a large monohull around the docks, and I told her that we are much better off having someone teach us on the boat we'll be using, and if it takes the first two or three days, so be it. But it's nice to hear it from someone else! That said ...

When check-out captains stay overnight on a boat that was chartered without an extra person in mind, what is the protocol for determining where they sleep? I have heard that it can be very nice sleeping in the cockpit under the stars, but is it right to expect the check-out captain to do that? The dinette settee is perhaps another option, although it is not designed to be converted. Or should we expect our 9 year old son to sleep there so the check out captain can get a cabin to him/herself?